WASHINGTON -- The nation's booming housing market continued to push prices higher in the summer and early fall with Orlando, Fort Myers and 67 other metropolitan areas reporting double-digit increases compared with a year ago, a real estate trade group reported today.

The National Association of Realtors said that the median price of an existing home rose by 14.7 percent in the July-September quarter to $215,900, compared with a median price of $188,200 a year ago. The median is the midpoint where half the homes sold for more and half for less.

Led by Phoenix, Ariz., and Orlando, the nation's hottest markets far outperformed the nationwide figure. The price of existing homes sold during the third quarter in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area jumped to $268,000, a whopping 55.2 percent higher than the same period a year ago. Orlando has the second biggest increase, a gain of 44.8 percent to $261,300, followed closely by Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., where home prices were up 42.5 percent to $277,600.

U.S. home sales fell 4.7 percent in the fourth quarter from a record in the previous three months, another sign the housing market is cooling, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors.

Sales of existing single-family houses and condominiums declined to an annualized pace of 6.9 million, seasonally adjusted, from 7.24 million in the third quarter, the trade group said Wednesday.

The median price for a single-family house rose 14 percent from a year earlier, compared with 15 percent in the third quarter, the fastest appreciation in 26 years.

The biggest gain for the quarter was in the metropolitan areas around Phoenix and Mesa, Ariz., where the median price jumped 49 percent to $268,400. Fort Myers was No. 2, rising 48 percent to $293,100, followed by Orlando, up 42 percent to $261,800, the group said.